As part of an IQLS project to strengthen public health laboratories in the Philippines, a comprehensive training on biostatistics and data management was conducted in Manila from March 3 to 7, 2025. This initiative, in collaboration with PBSP (Philippines Business for Social Progress), brought together 17 participants from key institutions, including:
- Office for Health Laboratories (OHL)
- Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM)
- Philippine Heart Center (PHC)
- Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP)
- National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI)
- East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC)
- San Lazaro Hospital (SLH)
Biostatistics are essential for medical laboratory specialists, as they rely on statistics daily in their routine work, requiring proficiency in key statistical concepts covered by this course:
- Fundamentals of biostatistics, combining theory with hands-on exercises
- MS Excel for biostatistics calculations
- Statistical applications in Internal Quality Control (IQC)
- The link between statistics, method validation, and method verification
- Confidence interval, method comparison, regression analysis
- Using statistics for epidemiological analysis
The pre- and post-training assessments revealed a 26% increase in knowledge, with an outstanding participant satisfaction score of 9.38/10. Participants expressed enthusiasm for the training, highlighting its practicality and relevance to their daily work.